Transfer for Research Partnership Grants

National Defence works closely with federal research funding agencies to support university-based research related to defence and security.
In these Estimates, National Defence is transferring $1.5 million to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
$1.2 million of the total funds will be transferred to NSERC to fund multiple projects at Canadian universities on a variety of unclassified technologies, such as:
- transportation infrastructure;
- security infrastructure;
- human-computer interaction;
- bacterial toxins; and
- data stream processing.
$342,632 of the total funds will be transferred to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to fund research related to:
- military organization culture change;
- diverse organizational teams; and
- autonomous intelligence systems.
These grants ensure that National Defence continues to leverage research in the fields of defence and national security.

Key Facts

Canadian universities conducting research projects: Calgary, Carleton, Guelph, Laval, and Waterloo

In July 2016, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), an agency of National Defence, signed a joint initiative agreement with SSHRC to conduct research related to:
- Military personnel readiness;
- Organizational and operational effectiveness; and
- Human effectiveness in modern operations.

The transfer to NSERC provides funding for 12 jointly-approved research projects jointly approved by NSERC and DRDC under the Department of National Defence – Collaborative Research and Development Grant funding opportunity.
The joint research grant project initiative will support unclassified university-based research, research training and research-related activities in natural sciences and engineering priority areas which are dedicated to the development of non-weapon specific technologies with potential dual use applications.
Examples of the 12 projects with NSERC include:
- Université Laval: A concept of transport infrastructures on unstable permafrost;
- University of Guelph: Structure and Function of Bacterial Toxins;
- University of Calgary: An interoperable and secure geospatial Internet of Things (IoT) platform for real-time data stream processing;
- University of Waterloo: Human-Computer Interaction in Spatial Augmented Reality;
- Carleton University: Security Infrastructure for Modern Information and Message Exchange Systems, Networks and Applications.

Version 5; 2020-02-28 – Source: Director Budget draft tab;